I take no pleasure in writing this article. Nor do I believe that I will be telling you something you are not acutely aware of, even if you choose not to believe it, but I would like to begin by asking a couple of questions.
When did the Carlton Football Club lose its soul?
When did the club become what it is, at the expense of what it was?
Over the past couple of weeks, Carlton has lost two of its greats. Peter Bosustow’s flame burned short at Princes Park, but by God, it burned brightly.
And Robert Walls was a true giant of the game – a ruthless player and a calculating coach that ended with four premierships to his name.
Both of these players are associated with the “glory years” of the Blues – a time when Carlton were both beloved and feared, depending on where you sat in footy fandom. But something has happened to the Blues since the days of Buzz, Walls, Jezza, and Sticks, and it is not something good, that’s for sure.
Always a club driven by success, the Blues have been devoid of it for 30 years, and are now deep into the least successful period in the club’s long history. And yet, still they find new ways to disappoint.
Tell me, when Joel Amartey decided to flatten Jordan Boyd in the closing minutes of the Round Ten loss to the Swans, how do you think the Blues of old would have reacted?
How do you think Robert Walls would have responded? Wayne Johnston? David Rhys-Jones? Diesel Williams?
How do you think they would have hit the next contest Amartey was involved in?
I mentioned the word “feared” just a little bit ago. Currently, there is no fear of this Carlton Football Club, at all. Just as there was no comeuppance and no remonstrating from the Blues as Boyd lay face-down on the deck, ready to enter concussion protocols. Amartey and the Swans went about their business, with nobody even bothering to fly the navy blue flag.
That, my friends, is alarm bells for the culture of a team. That is a team that is not only getting beaten, but getting beaten up, and simply accepting it.
Right now, the only bloke I would trust to genuinely fly the flag for Carlton is sitting in the stands, out for the season.
Nic Newman would not have stood for that shit. At least he cares.
I’m not sure others do.
Instead, we got Amartey standing under the footy to take a contested mark a minute or so later, and not one Carlton player even looked like they might even up. That he was able to take that mark is an indictment on Carlton in its current form.
Heartless. Soulless. Accepting, and not one bit of anger or passion about them.
Am I advocating the Blues going the knuckle?
I am sure some Helen Lovejoys will tell me I am advocating for violence, but that’s not what I am asking for. I am asking for the team to crack in and put their bodies on the line. I am asking to that the team makes an effort to make body contact and crash into the same blokes that are doing it to your teammates. I am asking the team to fly the bloody flag, instead of allowing it to fall in a heap on the ground and be trampled when an opposition player flattens one of your own.
If you have an issue with Carlton giving a bit back, you deserve a team that lays down when the physical side of the game enters the equation. Enjoy it. Have you enjoyed it?
You can point to a lot of things going wrong at Ikon Park right now, and it is easy to look at the second-half fadeouts and blame them. Or, if you like, you can look at missed free kicks and blame them, as well. I know plenty do.
But when you see one of your boys get flattened and none of the Carlton players out there do a thing about it, that, to me, is a team that has well and truly lost its way.
That is a team that no longer embodies the mongrel and arrogance that made Carlton great, and made me both hate and fear them when I was a kid.
That is a team accepting defeat, and accepting that one of their players just got flattened, and doing NOTHING about it, that’s the real problem to me.
That is a team that has lost its way.
And if it doesn’t find its path back to remembering who they are, this time in the wilderness might extend to a period that the men mentioned at the beginning of this article would never have fathomed.
Fly the flag, Baggers. Nobody else is going to do it for you.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
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